The white man and his religion were gradually gaining ground in other clans. They had built schools, churches and courts to prosecute anyone who violated their laws. There was no regard for native laws. Gradually, the black man’s laws were rendered invalid and they were called ndi idem or ‘the heathen’. Nothing they did was appreciated. They were told that one man came and died for the entire world and whoever believed in him might not see his ancestors but live forever. His name was Jisosu. Some also said he was Jeso Krisiti. Whatever he was called, he was not Chukwu and Chukwu had no son. A spirit did not marry. Even if he married, the white man who was worse than an outcast should not lay claim to him. It was to an Umudi man the story told by Nkanwojiaku, the village talkative, who went to alamuo and beat his father and came back alive in his dreams. On another thought, he was a coward for dying for the universe. Who knew him? Few clans, especially those from the white man’s clans, could lay claim on him. How could a reasonable man die for the entire world? Was he greater than Idemmiri, Onammiri, Ikoro and many great gods in other big kingdoms? It was the only story for the idu’s and oba’s. To the heathens, there was nothing about the white man that was good and pleasurable. All his stories smelled. The white man was narrow-minded, selfish and greedy. He could have been in his land and developed than coming to the land of the blacks to say what he did not know. Even after many years, there was still no eze or installed ruler at Umudi as it had cropped up in other clans and kingdoms on the insistence of the white man.
As for the white men, they loved the ways of the black man only for that moment. They needed something from them. They were finding it hard to adjust to the harsh weather and the nature of the people and their language. They battled with malaria, bad food and water and the bite of pests. The only thing he could say was how are you which Umudi people had said that it was awu. It was something that showed pity when it was said. By saying awu, the white man was pitying them so much and even saying it out loud.
They were prospering and growing in other clans, making many converts and gaining them, buying their ofo and deities. There were no-go areas – outcast, killing the python and twin babies, inheriting a woman, polygamy and destroying one’s chi, which was a direct inheritance from one’s father or grandfather.
Many family heads in Okene had sold some of their children to them and gradually, local ohu was going on. It would have been better for these to serve in their clans or other kingdoms than going to the white man’s land. These white men knew Umudi was a no-go area from the first time. Umudi had given them a dose of their trouble many years ago when they killed Mr. Kror and his brother and two interpreters and hung their bodies at Amandi-isii. They would only glimpse into the clan when men like Emenike must have died off in their numbers. As for Emenike, it was one of the many things that gave him a serious thought. They could come in the event of his death and reap from all his efforts. He had told his clansmen and his children that even when he died and anyone had dealings with the white man, that he would come from alammuo and strangle the person. He could be the last to see the white man’s tricks gaining ground and had made his children and wife to cease going to Okene market or discuss the white man with anyone.
Many had been deceived into believing that they should believe not only in Chukwu in heaven but also in his son who did not come to their own land, but to the land of the whites which they called the earth. It showed in all modesty that the whites should be closer to Chukwu and that the earth was made for only the blacks to live on. Emenike had continuously sacrificed to the gods in the belief that they had thrown him into the infinite and will not see him off balance. Nothing again made him feel. He had been fulfilled and his belief was that it was only the gods and Chukwu who could wrestle with him and win. He trusted in this sense that he was always a judge in his own matter.